A New Friend?
by iSakuraSnow
Summary: Kenma Kozume is a shy, cat-eyed boy who enjoys playing video games. He rarely talks, for fear of how other would portray him; and he isn't the type who could make friends easily. That is, before he met Karin Fuyu, the new transfer student; an outgoing person who eagerly befriends Kenma. However, can their friendship last with bullies and even friends in their way?
1. The Transfer Student

**Chapter One: The Transfer Student**

The homeroom teacher, Mrs. Kuriyama, clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "We have a new transfer student today!"

All but one pair of eyes turned to face the door as a thin girl with light brown hair walked into the classroom.

"Hello, everyone, my name is Karin Fuyu. It's nice to meet you!" The transfer student exclaimed.

Everyone began welcoming her and asking her numerous questions. "I heard that she came all the way from England, is that true?!"

Karin chuckled nervously as she walked through the swarm of people. She soon found a seat behind a boy who was scrolling through an app on his phone. Karin tapped the boy's shoulder and tried to start a conversation with him. "What app are you using?"

Without looking from his screen, the boy replied. "Game Buzz."

Before Karin could reply, a bunch of girls made their way to her desk.

"Fuyu-san, my name is Shiro, and I'm the class' representative!" One of the girls exclaimed. She turned her head towards Kenma and said, "I see that you've already met Kozume Kenma."

Karin nodded.

Shiro continued. "As the class' representative, I'll introduce Kozume to you. He's the class' gamer, but he can be a fine student." Then, Shiro turned to Kenma. "As a fellow classmate, I would like you to show Karin around the school."

Kenma nodded. "How hard can it be?" He thought, but little does he know, Karin and him had already made an enemy.


	2. The Cafeteria

**Chapter Two: The Cafeteria**

Karin and Kenma walked side by side into the cafeteria.

"Thank you for showing me the way here," Karin said.

Kenma nodded and walked away.

Karin waited on line for her food and sighed. "I should have bought my own lunch today."

After what seemed like hours, Karin finally met the cashier. She handed the cashier the ramen she wanted to buy, along with 600 yen. Thanking the cashier for the food, Karin walked away to find an empty seat to enjoy her lunch. Karin soon finds an empty seat, but before she could venture any further, she tripped over something... or preferably; someone.

"Yo, watch where ya going!" A girl exclaimed; a girl who happened to be the one who tripped her.

"I'm sorry, I'll be more careful next time." Karin replied innocently. She didn't want to cause anymore trouble, after all.

However, the girl didn't want her prey to back down so easily, but before she could do anything, a small and timid voice spoke up behind her, "Please stop."

"Oh?" The girl spun around to find herself face to face with Kenma. "Are you telling me what to do?"

Kenma remained silent, but after a while, he spoke up again. "Maybe I am."

The girl glared at Kenma. "Tch, the name's Chiyo, by the way." With that, Chiyo held her head high and walked away.

Kenma shrugged and walked off in the other direction.

Karin followed him.

"Kenma!" Karin called. When he turned around, Karin bowed her head. "T-Thank you for helping me!"

"No problem," Kenma said. He lowered his head and quickly started to walk away.

"Wait!" Karin called out again. "Why did you help me, though? Aren't you scared about what people would think of you now?"

Kenma replied softly. "I do, actually."

Karin reached out for Kenma. "You shouldn't worry too much! I wouldn't have the wrong impression of you." She blushed. "You actually seem really cool."

Kenma smiled. "I wanted you to have a good impression of me."

Before either Kenma or Karin could say anything else, the cafeteria lady spoke up. "Ten minutes before lunch time ends!"

With that, Kenma jerked his head towards Karin.

"You can sit with me if you want. I mean..."

"If you insist~!" Karin smiled.

Looks like she got the seat she's been eyeing on after all!


	3. The Volleyball Trio

Karin sat in her seat and put her ear buds on. It had only been a day since she transferred into this school, yet she surprisingly felt at home. Karin looked at the empty seat in front of her and wondered where her classmate is.

As if speaking of the devil, Kenma appeared at the doorway of the classroom, along with a dark haired boy.

"Oh my goodness, Kuroo is back!" One girl shrieked as she ran to welcome Kuroo.

Before long, many other girls did as well. However, Kuroo ignored them all.

"Where's the new transfer kid?" Kuroo exclaimed.

Karin was pretty sure Kenma said something to Kuroo because soon Kuroo turned to her direction.

"There you are! Damn the rumors are right, you _are_ cute." Kuroo smirked as he turned to Kenma. "Do you like her?"

"She's nice," Kenma stated with a blank expression on his face.

Kuroo put his arms around Kenma's shoulder. "I'm pretty sure that was a yes or no question."

Kenma simply pushed Kuroo's arm off and went to sit down on his seat.

Kuroo went to his seat too, which turned out to be the seat next to Karin (and diagonally behind Kenma). Then, he leaned over towards Karin. "What are your interests?" Kuroo asked.

"I don't know… Games, I guess." Karin replied.

"Kenma, did you hear? Karin likes games!" Kuroo exclaimed mischievously.

"Yeah… I have ears," Kenma replied as he took out his phone.

"I see! Good to hear that you're using them."

The three of them remained silent for a few minutes before Karin let out a giggle.

"You two are so cute," She said.

(Author's Note: This girl is obviously a Kuroo x Kenma shipper ^.~)

Again, there was an awkward moment of silence.

"S-Sorry if I said something wrong. I just meant that you two seemed like good friends, that's all." Karin awkwardly explained.

Kuro held his head high. "Of course! We're great friends, right, Kenma?"

Kenma simply nodded.

Before anyone could speak up again, the class representative Shiro ran up to Karin with a paper in her hand.

"Karin-chan, I received the after-school activity sheet you requested yesterday!"

Karin took the paper in her hand and scanned through the paper. She was going to join the baking club until she spotted a particular club that enlightened her.

"There's a volleyball club!" Karin cried with joy.

Shiro laughed. "Yes, there is! In fact, your friends Kozume-san and Tetsuro-san are in the volleyball club."

"That's right!" Kuroo exclaimed.

"They're different…" Kenma said.

"The volleyball club is separated by gender. However, the volleyball teams do hold joint practices with each other occasionally," Shiro explained.

Karin waved it away. "That's okay, volleyball is life! To me, at least. Besides, they aren't even my friends... More like classmates."

"Oh," Kenma replied as he looked down at the floor.

"Umm… I mean we just met," said Karin.

"I guess." Kenma turned back to his phone.

Shiro took out a binder and turned to a page. "Actually, I have a note saying that the girls' and boys' team might have a joint practice today to view each other's skill and make suggestions so both teams can improve."

Karin clasped her hands. "That's a great idea!"

Turning to Kenma, she said, "I can't wait to see you play."

"Ehh?! You don't want to see _me_ play?" Kuroo asked.

Karin giggled. "I can't wait to see you play as well, Kuroo!"

Suddenly, the bell rang, telling the students that it's time for math class.

During class, Kuroo poked Kenma's ribs. "Kenma, I'm bored!" Kuroo whined.

"Do your work," Kenma replied.

"I want to see Karin play volleyball. Do you think she'll play good? She might even play in an adorable way~" Kuroo said with a smirk.

"Oh…"

"We'll see…"

"Yup. Only seven periods left."

"Only…"


	4. The Volleyball Club

Eventually, 7 periods passed and the students were allowed to either go home or go to club. Kenma, Kuroo, and Karin walked down the hall together. Karin tried to start a conversation.

"Have you guys played in any games against other schools?" Karin asked.

"Yup, and I defeated a lot of them!" Kuroo boasted.

"You didn't beat them; the team did," Kenma stated.

Kuroo placed his arm around Kenma's shoulder.

"This guy is one of the most valuable players, in which one of them is obviously me."

Karin couldn't help but laugh.

"You two really do seem like good friends," She said.

The three friends stopped in front of two big doors.

"Ah, we're here!" Karin exclaimed.

She opened the doors to the gymnasium and took a peek inside.

"Hmm… Not bad… I thought the gym would've been a bit bigger, though," Karin said.

"The gym where the nationals are held in is super big! That's where I'm aiming for!" Kuroo exclaimed.

Karin gave him a big smile and said, "I'll see you there, then!"

Before any of them can say anything, their coaches called them over.

The female coach was short and thin, but she had was obviously skilled. Meanwhile, the male coach was tall and well-built.

"You must be the new club member… Karin Fuyu, am I right?" The female coach said.

Karin nodded.

"That's me!~"

The female coach put her hand out.

"My name is Miss Notori. It's nice to meet you."

Karin shook her head and gave a big smile as the coach introduced her to the club members. Her smile wavered when she spotted someone she knew: Chiyo, the girl who tripped her in the cafeteria last time and the girl who had been glaring at her the whole time.

"Karin, would you like to be the spiker?" Miss Notori asked.

"I'm not really good at spiking, though," Karin said.

"Well, we are still deciding who does what the best. It's not official yet."

"In that case, sure, I'll try it!" Karin exclaimed.

Chiyo had her mouth open to complain. However, she soon shut her mouth and smirked. She was confident that Karin would never get on the official team.

Miss Notori set everyone up into a practicing formation that would improve their spikes and sets. When it was Karin's turn to spike, she ended up being paired up with Chiyo and nearly missed the ball. Unfortunately, the ball hit the net.

"You suck. Why are you even here?" Chiyo murmured.

Karin ignored her statement and exclaimed, "One more!"

Chiyo sighed and tossed the ball yet again for Karin. Karin hit the ball this time, and it went over the net. However, at the angle the ball went over, the opponent could've easily blocked the ball.

"One more!" Karin exclaimed.

Chiyo sighed. "Give up."

"Why don't we switch positions?" Karin asked. "You be the spiker and I'll be the setter."

"No way, I'm the official setter here. Coach Notori said so!"

Miss Notori overheard the conversation and took the idea into consideration.

"It doesn't hurt to try," Miss Notori said.

With that, Chiyo grumbled and switched places with Karin. Karin knew it was her time to shine. After all, setting is actually the only thing she could do in volleyball.

"Can you go behind me and spike from there?" Karin asked.

"The f- Why?"

"You'll see what I mean. Just spike."

Chiyo sneered. "You'll never make it into the team, but don't fret. I'm good at everything. I can replace."

"I'm going to toss," Karin said.

Chiyo awkwardly jumped into spiking position. Out of nowhere, the ball flew directly at her hands, so that the moment she spiked, the ball went perfectly over the net.

Miss Notori stared at the duo and tried to interpret what just happened.

"H-How did you send that toss?!" Chiyo asked.

"I aimed the ball towards you," Karin explained.

Miss Notori came over to Karin.

"You're a really good setter, Karin."

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry, Chiyo, but I think Karin would do a lot better than you as a setter."

"W-Wait, what?! Are you giving her _my_ role?"

Miss Notori nodded.

"THAT IS NOT FAIR!" Chiyo exclaimed.

Chiyo's loud voice echoed through the gym as everyone in the gym (including the boys) turned and stared at her. Miss Notori tried to calm Chiyo down.

"You want to be part of a strong team, don't you?"

"Y-Yes, but…!" Chiyo started.

"You'll be the spiker since you're really good at spiking."

"I demand a rematch!" Chiyo exclaimed.

"We didn't even have a match," Karin stated.

All of a sudden, the bell rang.

"Students, it's time to pack up and leave," Miss Notori instructed.

Karin gathered her belongings and stuffed them into her bag. Looks like she managed to make it into the team, after all.


	5. Lunch with Kuroo

**Kuroo put his arm around Kenma's shoulders. "Say, you ate lunch with Karin before, right?" Kuroo gave him a toothy grin.**

Kenma nodded.

"You'll let your best friend sit with you, right?"

Kenma nodded.

* * *

In a blink of an eye, six periods passed by, and it was time for lunch. Karin, Kuroo, and Kenma walked together to find a seat in the cafeteria.

"Karin, you're pretty good at volleyball." Kuroo tried to start a conversation.

Karin, surprised by the compliment, replied, "T-Thanks, you're a lot better than I'll ever be, though."

"Don't say that! I'm sure you would be a lot better than me if you had more practice."

"Ah… Thanks…"

"How about we go over to the park sometime and practice-" Kuroo was interrupted by a hungry cat-eyed boy.

"Are you going to eat that cake?" Kenma interrupted. His keen, cat-like eyes stared intensely at the slice of strawberry cake on Karin's plate.

"Ah, yes, I am! I love strawberry cake!" Karin smiled as she took a bite of the slice.

"Do you want some of my blueberry cake?" Kenma asked as he poked his slice with a fork.

"Don't mind if I do!~" Karin spooned out a piece of blueberry cake. "Uhh, I mean, thank you!" Karin smiled sheepishly for she has a bad habit of eating other people's food. Then, she turned back to Kuroo. "Ah, sorry, what were you saying?"

"Oh, nothing… Forget about it."

Before Kuroo could say anymore, the bell rang, and everyone was already going to their next class. Kuroo looked over at his friend Kenma and wondered why he interrupted him. Wasn't he supposed to support him? However, Kenma was busy trying to figure out the answer to his own question. He licked his lips and wondered why his blueberry cake tasted a lot better after Karin took a bite.


	6. Studying Together

It was a normal Monday morning. Kenma was on his phone, Kuroo was doing his homework at the last minute, and Karin was doodling in her journal. Shiro ran up to them to make her announcement.

"The exams are coming up in a week. Did any of you study?"

"Ah, I did, actually." Karin said.

Kuroo stood up, startled.

"Oh right, the exams are coming! Ah, what should I do? I'll definitely fail!" Kuroo exclaimed.

Kenma looked up at him with his keen, cat-like eyes. "I have a really good advice."

Kuroo leaned forward in anticipation.

"Try studying," Kenma said.

"Eh?! I don't have time for that. That I'm a busy person!" Kuroo exclaimed.

"What makes you so busy?"

"I play volleyball. My fabulous volleyball skills didn't just magically appear, you know." Kuroo flipped his hair and grinned.

"Right…" Kenma turned back to his phone.

"Kuroo, want to come over to my place to study?" Karin asked.

"What?! Umm…" Kuroo blushed, but he couldn't hide his goofy grin.

"He would love to go," Kenma stated.

He didn't bother looking up from his phone.

"Y-Yeah, I don't mind," Kuroo stammered.

"Oh, thank goodness~ I was worried you would decline." Karin let out a sigh of relief.

"Why…?" Kuroo asked.

He couldn't help but be a bit curious.

"Well, I actually wanted to spend some time with you during the weekend. Not to mention that I really should study for this exam," Karin stated.

"Why me, though?" Kuroo asked.

"Well, you're one of my few friends, and you kinda need the help…"

Kenma glanced up at Karin and Kuroo. After a few seconds, he turned back to his phone.

"Where's your house?"

"961 Strawbury Street," Karin stated.

Kuroo wrote down the address on a slip of paper.

"I'll also give you my number, just in case you get lost. It's 347-101-5555."

Kenma glanced up from his phone with a look in his eye, a look that probably meant that he was surprised that his friend managed to acquire such information. Then, right when he was about to turn back to his phone, Karin caught his eye.

"Kenma, do you want to tag along?" Karin asked.

Kenma looked up at Kuroo. Kuroo shrugged.

"Sure, I'll come."

With that, the three kids merrily went through class and started planning their weekend together. Kenma wondered what games he should bring, Karin wondered what subject they should work on first, and Kuroo wondered what food he should bring. Little did they know, their school day had passed already. Let the weekend begin!


	7. Karin's House

Usually, Karin would wake up at 12pm during the weekends. Yes, her sleeping schedule is messed up, but today, she decided to wake up at 8am. To her, that's considered "early". To cool people, it's considered "normal". After all, you're supposed to wake up in the _morning_, not in the afternoon.

When Karin completed her "daily" routine, she went to the kitchen to get her breakfast of blueberry pancakes.

"Isn't today the day in which your friends are coming over to study?" Karin's mom, , said.

"Yeah, they're coming over at 11am today," Karin answered.

"That's around lunch time," stated, "I'll make lunch for you guys."

"Thanks, mom!" Karin exclaimed.

's cooking truly is the best.

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

Kenma laid in bed with his phone in his hand. His fingers violently and swiftly tapped the screen as he tried to control his avatar in the game he's playing. Thanks to gravity, his phone -which was in his hands and above his head- fell onto his face. Actually, the main reason why his phone fell might've been because his hands were really shaky. This is the first time Kenma had ever been invited to go to a girl's house.

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

It was 9am when Kuroo's alarm clock first went off, but he hit the snooze button. 15 minutes later, his alarm clock went off again, and he pressed "snooze".

He repeated the same procedure over and over again until eventually, it was 10:45am.

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

Kenma stood at Karin's front door at 10:50am. He was afraid that he was a bit early, so he decided to simply stand outside for a while to wait for Kuroo to arrive. However, after only 2 minutes of standing, the door behind him opened, and Karin emerged from it.

"Hey, Kozume-kun. Why didn't you ring the doorbell?" Karin asked.

Kenma took a few moments before he could muster enough courage to speak to her.

"I was waiting for Kuroo," He said.

"He'll come eventually… I think. Why don't you wait inside? I'll give you a tour."

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

"This is the bedroom. This is the living room. My dad will be watching TV here, so we won't be using this room. This is the kitchen. You'll most likely find my mom here if you need her. This is the dining room. That's my parent's bedroom. My dad said that we shouldn't enter it without his permission. This is my bedroom. We will be studying in here," Karin said.

Kenma peered around the room with his observant eyes. The walls were painted rose pink, the ceiling was painted banana yellow, and the carpet was vintage violet. Kenma noticed that the desk was organized, the floor was clean, and the bed was neatly made with a white bunny plush toy lying on top of the sheets.

"Your room is very clean," Kenma said.

"Actually, I spent my whole morning cleaning it because it was very messy," Karin admitted.

"You're still a trim person, though. Your notes are very tidy," Kenma rebutted.

"How do you know how my notes look like?" Karin asked, surprised. "I don't recall ever showing you my notebook."

"You sit near me in class," Kenma stated.

There was a long pause in the conversation. Neither of them knew what else to add on to the conversation.

"They're also very cute," Kenma said. Afterwards, he stared at the floor, as if he regretted saying those words. His words surprised Karin.

"What are?"

"Your room… Your notes… And your style," Kenma said slowly.

"T-Thanks," Karin said, blushing.

There was yet another awkward moment of silence.

"Oh come on, Kenma. Don't put a girl on the spot like that. You're making her feel awkward."

Kenma and Karin turned to face the door to see Kuroo there (at 11:15am).

"Kuroo, you're late!" Karin exclaimed.

"Sorry, I slept through the alarm," Kuroo said.

"More like you repeatedly hit the snooze button to the point you became late," Kenma said.

"How did you know?" Kuroo teased.

"A little bird told me, I guess."

"Let's hit the books now, okay?" Karin asked.

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

In group studies at school, students would do their work and talk about their procedures to a peer, afterwards. Although Karin and the others are having a group study now, Karin and Kuroo were the only ones who actually spoke, whether it was on topic or not.

Kenma noticed that whenever Karin spoke, Kuroo would stare into her eyes and a huge grin would slowly appear on his face, and expression that he makes only when he's doing something he likes. In addition, whenever Kuroo spoke, Karin would smile pleasantly at him, the prettiest type of smile that a girl could make.

When Kenma was talking to Karin, Karin didn't smile like that. Karin's smile was rather awkward and forced. Kenma had spent a lot of time observing people. He believed that he should understand people a lot more than others, but when he starts commingling with a peer the way others do, he doesn't receive the same response. He has always wondered why.

"Kozume-kun, are you there?" Karin asked.

Kenma blinked his large yellow eyes and turned towards Karin.

"Are you okay? You were spacing out."

Kenma nodded and said, "I'm okay."

"I was asking you whether or not you had a problem you're stuck on," Karin said.

"Oh, I don't."

"Really?" Karin asked as she leaned over to see Kenma's notebook. When Karin's arm touched his own, he scooted away a little bit. Human contact was still quite alien to him. Karin's eyes scanned the notebook. "Wow, Kozume-kun… These are all correct."

Kenma shrugged and said, "The topics were are currently learning in school are pretty easy."

"Easy?!" Kuroo exclaimed. "I don't understand _anything_ in class!"

"That's awesome, Kozume-kun! You must be very smart," Karin said.

"I'm pretty sure you're smarter than me," Kenma said.

"That's not true! I don't understand many things in science class, and in math class, I make a ton of silly mistakes," Karin confessed.

"It's normal for people to make mistakes," Kenma said.

"But-"

"What don't you comprehend in science class?"  
"What?"  
"You said there were many things in science class that you didn't understand," Kenma said.

"Oh, right. I had some trouble understanding when the teacher talked about nuclei," Karin replied.

Kenma opened Karin's science textbook and turned towards the chapter that talked about nuclei. Karin was the only one who brought home her textbooks, so Kenma and Karin had to share it.

Kuroo decided that he should take a look at Karin's textbook, too, so he sat to Karin's right (who was sitting to Kenma's right). When Kuroo realized that he couldn't see the textbook, he moved to Kenma's left. To his frustration, the textbook was closer to Karin so he still couldn't see the pages. Kenma realized his problem.

"Karin, sit on my lap."

That surprised both Karin and Kuroo.

"Why?" They asked in unison.  
"It will allow Kari to get a better view of the textbook, and I would be able to push the textbook closer to you."

"But wouldn't it be uncomfortable for you?" Karin asked.

"I don't think so. You seem very light," Kenma said.

Karin blushed, and she slowly climbed onto Kenma's lap. He gently hugged her around her waist, his arms acting like a seatbelt. Whenever Kenma spoke, his breath would pass by Karin's left ear, leaving a warm feeling for Karin.

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

After a few more lectures given by Kenma, it was eventually 12:15pm, and came up with the kids' lunches. She was surprised to find Karin in Kenma's lap, but when she noticed how hard the 3 of them were studying, she decided to simply leave their lunches by the door and to quietly sneak out of the room.

❤?￢ﾝﾤ

It was 12:30pm that they noticed their lunch was waiting by the door.

"Let's hurry up and finish our lunch, so we can get back to studying," Kuroo said.

Kenma stared at him.  
"You're actually willing to study now?"  
Kuroo grinned and nodded proudly.  
"Studying in a group is fun," He said, but even though he used the word "group", he was staring at Karin the whole time.


End file.
